This invention relates to metal-backed gasket assemblies where the metal plate has gasket material applied to one or both sides of the metal plate and firmly adhered thereto for the purpose of effecting a seal. The invention has particular applicability to the automatic transmission field where in assembling the automatic transmissions or in repairing them it has been customary to apply the metal separator plates with one or more gaskets associated therewith as two or three individual components. The metal plates are ordinarily of a thickness of from 30 to 60 thousandths of an inch and the gaskets may run from approximately 0.007 to 0.015 and since these gaskets as well as the metal plates normally have a large number of die-out apertures therein, considerable difficulty has been experienced in the past in handling these components, and particularly the gasket components, due to their flimsiness.
The principal object of this invention, therefore, is a method to provide a unitized metal plate and gasket assembly which can be handled and applied, as a unit, and in which the bonding materials and procedures do not adversely affect the required physical characteristics of the gasket material or contaminate in any way the fluid that is passing through the tranmission, or in contact with or through the separator plate.
Another object of the invention is to provide a utilized plate of this type which can be manufactured economically and which will withstand the rigors of use in a transmission.
It is still a further ojbect of the invention to provide practical and efficient methods for making such a unitized plate assembly.